"I miss happiness:" A Syrian's journey from Mayor in Aleppo to obscurity in Saint John

Chris Donovan / The Globe and Mail

Text by Cathal Kelly

July 28, 2017

At 2 a.m. in the midst of Ramadan in 2012, Mohamed Sharbaji got a call from a neighbour of his Aleppo home: “There are men with guns in your house.”

In the moment before that conversation, Mr. Sharbaji was a man of influence. A former business owner and land developer, he’d spent 15 years as an elected mukhtar(roughly, mayor) of his Syrian neighbourhood.

On many late nights, his constituents would bang on his door looking for counsel. He headed a large family and was renowned for his singing voice. He enjoyed the remarkably full life of a man in his prime.

In the moment after he got off the phone, all that had ended.

See full story here: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/syrian-refugee-journey-aleppo-to-saint-john/article35802828/